This year’s Croatian Pavilion for the Biennale of Venice was designed by a group of 14 leading Croatian architects, amongst them our friends of 3LHD Architects. The floating construction was built up on an existing barge in the harbour of Reijka and was afterwards shipped through the Adriatic Sea to Venice. The structure is welded from 30 tons of Q385 wire mesh in more than 40 layers, they form – due to varying contours – the interior spaces. The Pavilion with the Croatian exhibition is open at the Croatian venue at the Arsenale.

Fri 4.12.

The Croatian architects of 3LHD recently unveiled the new Dance Center in Zagreb. The project is a conversion of an old cinema.

Zagreb Dance Center by 3LHD, photo by Sandro Lendler

Here is what the architects explain:

“The opening of big movieplex cinemas in Zagreb has led to the dying out of old cinema theatres in the city centre. The City of Zagreb, who is the owner of the old cinema Lika, decided to reuse the space for new cultural facilities. In that scenario old cinema Lika was given the role of a new dance centre.”

Zagreb Dance Center, photo by Sandro Lendler

“Fifty years of contemporary dance culture in Zagreb has produced about 40 dance troops, with this project all of them will have a new home in the city centre. The cinema is located in a derelict residential block only 100 meters away from the Zagreb’s main square. The entire project’s program is determined by the gross developed area defined in the master plan and it places the project in the old cinema shell. The new dance centre which will house numerous dancers, choreographers, art troops and companies will have three multipurpose studios (one large studio with 150 telescopic seats and two smaller training studios), three spacious dressing rooms, bathrooms, storages for props and technology and office spaces.”

Zagreb Dance Center, photo by Sandro Lendler

“The only new architectural element of the centre is the new entrance lobby, a polyvalent space in the service of communication and meeting with a cafe, library and a video store. It was interpolated on the basis of almost default parameters of the existing neighboring houses. The volume and its broken forms also suggest dance movement and they are a new sign and connection element between the courtyard and the roof terrace. The roof terrace is the final element of the centre and an important part of the project of preservation and restoration of Zagreb last open roof stage.”

Thu 12.11.

The Zagreb based 3LHD Architects realised the Zamet Centre in Rijeka in the North of Croatia. The 16830 m2 complex hosts various facilities: sports hall with max 2380 seats, local community offices, library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

Zamet Centre, photo by Damir Fabijanic

Here is what the architect’s explain:

“The goal and a perpetual guideline for the project were the evaluation and a minimum distortion of the existing urban environment. One third of the sports hall volume is cut in the ground, and the rest of the Centre is fully fitted into the surrounding landscape. The building’s main architectural element are ribbon-like linear stripes stretching over the site in a north-south direction, functioning at the same time as an architectural design element of the object and as a zoning element which forms a public square and a link between the park on the north and school and B. Vidas street on the south.”

Zamet Centre, photo by Damir Fabijanic

“The stripes were inspired by “gromača”, a type of rocks specific to Rijeka, which the centre artificially reinterprets by colour and shape. They are paved with 51.000 ceramic tiles designed by 3LHD and manufactured specially for the centre. The steel construction, girder span of 55 meters and their varying height allow the natural light to illuminate the sports hall.”

Zamet Centre, photo by Damir Fabijanic

“The hall has been designed in accordance with the latest world sports standards for major international sports competitions. The concept is based on flexibility of space. Playground size is 46 x 44 meters, for two handball courts. The hall contains all the supporting facilities for professional training and competition, and the auditorium designed as a system of telescopic stands enables the transformation for everyday use as well as for other activities such as concerts, conferences and congresses. Selected interior materials – wood and acoustic panels and the equipment used to furnish the hall suggest that it is a large living room for athletes. The main access to the hall and other facilities is located west of the hall from the public square and from the underground garage.”

3LHD was established in 1994, in an atmosphere of Croatia’s political and economic transition, which extends to the present. Under constant pressure from the laws of market transition the studio was formed on the basis of team work and atmosphere.

A collaborative architectural studio, which is particularly interested in the integration of architecture, art and (urban) landscape, an approach which has resulted in a series of projects and realizations in Croatia and abroad. The team uses an integrative approach and is primarly involved in thematiclly-driven work. Studio 3LHD represents a kind of frontrunner of the ‘stream of the outcast’ from the tradition of Croatian Modernism.

The traditional local dry stone wall motif has been used as a template/pattern for the whole surfacing of the sports hall.

Bale is a small village in Istria peninsula with mostly agricultural population of 1000 people. The project for the new sports hall has been faced with the rich historical, cultural and social Mediterranean context. Inspiration for structure has been found in the small traditional stone hut – kažun, a small multifunctional building used as a shelter for shepherds that provide a cool environment in hot weather and insulating against the cold in the winter. The traditional local dry stone wall motif has been used as a template/pattern for the whole surfacing of the sports hall.

House J2, Zagreb, Croatia, 2007: large glass walls along the full height of the level and a glass cupola above the main stairs allow light into and guide it through the house space.

The J2 family house is located in an environment that is typical for the slopes of Sljeme, with randomly situated and unplanned detached houses of various sizes and layouts. The site is very steep and access is difficult. The design was commissioned by a typical family – parents, children and grandmother.The steep terrain defined the shape of the house. Open views and the open atrium create a space which is a combination of light and dark. The living room and the dining room open on to terraces with views across the city and to Sljeme.